1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to data converting systems of the sort used to convert coded input data into display output data.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, there has been considerable interest in data converter systems. Some of the major areas of interest are computer animation, 3-D graphic display systems, etc., and a few data converters have come into use. In this prior art, either line-by-line plotting as in stroke writing display systems, or point-by-point plotting as in raster scan display devices have been used. The major disadvantage of the stroke writing systems is that they cannot plot fast enough to generate detailed pictures and most of them cannot display color directly. The line scan display devices can overcome the disadvantages of the stroke writing systems but require a considerable amount of memory to store the color information at each dot location.
Therefore, these prior systems were either too simple to handle the problem satisfactorily or too complex for most applications. Even the complex systems, because of the amount of data manipulation involved, have not been able to generate satisfactory real time computer animation.
It is an object of the present invention to significantly reduce the amount of memory required to store the description of symbols in a data converter.
It is another object of the present invention to provide means whereby the symbols may be readily manipulated in a data converter.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide means in a data converter whereby special effects such as fade-in, fade-out, etc., may be performed on the symbols on display.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide in a data converter means whereby the resulting picture of the symbol may be distributed to different display devices.
If each line of the raster of a line scan display is considered to be composed of a plurality of discrete dot elements, then the whole raster can be considered to be composed of a plurality of dot elements, and symbols can be formed on the line scan display by illuminating the proper dots with the proper color and intensity in a group of dots. This group of dots within which the symbol is formed is called a dot matrix. If the dots illuminated are consecutive with no blanks and of the same color and intensity for each line of the dot matrix, then we have a line segment matrix.
The data converter will, therefore, accept the 3-D description of the symbol and convert it into its dot matrix or line segment matrix equivalent suitable for display on a 2-D display device.